My Dreaming In My Life

During my senior year of high school, my paternal grandmother was very ill with cancer. My paternal grandmother would always talk about how happy she would be if I went to UC Davis for my bachelor's degree. She mentioned my older brother’s dream school as a great school for my passions. With her health declining, I decided to fulfil one of her biggest hope and dreams. My grandmother passed away in the summer of 2016 and I knew she would be able to pass on to the afterlife happy, knowing her grandchildren are going to achieve at their highest potential in the future. Although I am grateful for my own achievements, support from my family and where it has taken me, UC Davis was not truly the place I want to be. I truly wanted to attend a school

During my time at Union County College I have been faced with a lot of difficulties. I’ve struggled along the way but one thing I do believe is that I have the power to do better. My GPA has been affected by my personal mistakes. In my past semesters I have let my job take over my life rather than let school be most important. I have also let my personal family problems affect my work ethic. But through my fall 2014, it was most difficult because of March 2014 I lost my father through an unexpected heart attack. Throughout my fall semester I did struggle and cope with my father not being here anymore. I believed that I wasn’t focused enough because I used fall semester as a time to occupy myself rather that time out to deal with my father’s

Having a dream and living with passion is very important because I believe living without passion is like being dead. Someone like Tony Hawk could agree. Tony Hawk has been a professional skateboarder for over 24 years. However, he did not receive that title overnight; Tony got his first skateboard when he was only 9 years old. Since then, Tony worked extremely hard and put a lot of his focus on skateboarding. He did it because that was his Dream. Tony’s Dream was frowned upon by many of his teachers and adults alike. One of his teachers even told him that he “would never make it in the workplace if he didn’t follow directions exactly” (Hawk), but he never gave up his Dream. He kept working hard and eventually became a pro at the young age of 15.

As soon as my eyes woke up to the bitter cold of the night and stars covered by black blanket of clouds, I knew that this was it. I had tried to prepare myself that day, but I was at school when it happened. The moment the intercom came over the classroom, “Hailey Wooldridge needs to come the office, her mom is here to check her out,” my heart stopped. I was able to make it to the office without losing my composure, but as soon as my eyes met my mom standing there with tears in hers I lost it. Right there standing in the school office, the food gates of heaven opened up in my eyes and I could not stop the rivers from flowing. My best friend since kindergarten had died. All the planning of moving in together when we went to college was down the drain. The late nights of watching horribly filmed scary movies was done. My heart was broken, and the pieces are still not taped together properly. Two days later was her funeral. Her mother had asked me to say a couple of words about her during the service, but the thought of standing next to her lifeless body talking about her and not to her made everything seem surreal. By the power of prayer and numerous amounts of tears, I stood up from my seat and walked lifelessly to the podium that viewed hundreds of people waiting to see what I had to say. I do not know how I got through that speech without hysterically crying, but somehow, I talked like I was having a conversation with Serra once again. In front of me, I

College for many is a rejoicing part of growing up. The thought of entering a new beginning and creating joyous memories along the way paints the best years of life for many. During college years, students typically want to live free, disregard adult responsibilities and have a great social life, all while maintaining the course load of their academic studies. It all sounds great until an unfortunate reality for too many college students sets in. That unfortunate circumstance being coping with the death of a loved one. In the United States alone an estimated 30% to 40% of students on college campuses are grieving the loss of someone with whom they shared a significant relationship

In that time I was working a full and part time job to help my mother out while she was on disability. In those years I had no idea what I wanted to do and lacked the passion that now drives me. I knew I needed college to be successful but I also knew I was the only one bringing income in for my family. My academics took a backseat for extra shifts and taking care of mother when she was ill. As I left my exam, I remembered that mother from the accident and how I couldn’t of taken care of her if I hadn't taken of myself and emotions. I had failed to do that with my own mother and academics when I started college. I still work a full and part time job as an EMT while pursuing my prereqs for PA school but my passion to become a PA has transformed my lackluster grades into making the dean's

"I remember coming home from school and receiving an email notification. When I opened it and read my scholarship reward letter, I was honestly speechless. Tears slid down my face as I stood there in my bedroom telling myself how my life had just taken a turn. Playing the scenarios of college life and the great opportunity in pursuing a career; I was honestly the happiest that I had ever been at that point because there is no other greater gift thank the opportunity to continue education and be successful in this world. I was going to do it, not just for myself, but for my parents as well. I have everything to owe to them because they were the ones who always supported me and encouraged me to study in the early stages of my life." This was truly a touching story; however, because we always hear about the great moments but rarely about the rough patches, we decided to ask him a couple of questions concerning his tough times. We asked him if there were any moments where he felt like it was too much for him, and his response was as follows: "Of course, like every college student experiences, I had times were I found a class difficult and I almost gave up, but whenever I would feel that way, I would stop and think about the day I received that email and how my life had changed forever. It would motivate me to continue pushing myself and that I was there for a

The sky and all its beautiful colors are all that were running through my mind. I didn't notice it then, but that was the last day we ever had those moments not only there but back home too. I never expect for him to leave, which was foolish. He found happiness in the bottom of a drink, how couldn't alcohol take him? I realize we're all trying to kill that pain somehow. I didn't imagine his death would take a hold of my life, but in a way it did. You see he was the only close death, I experienced in my 17 years, before him I didn't think death would ever influence me, for it was just a life check everyone check off eventually. I took his death as unexplained for so long, all I had angry and unresolved feelings and they controlled a part of my life. I know that pain will always be there, but my life couldn’t stop, I couldn’t let this unresolved grief influence me as my uncles did. Although death is a sad thing, you have must choose whether to let it destroy oneself or sharpen it. I’m still on the path of understanding how life is after the death, still I remember he loved us and he isn’t sadden anymore, and that gives me joy and keeps on

I come from a small city where most of the people don’t have big dreams or desires. Where everybody settles down where they are at and don’t even try to strike for the best. Where nobody has hope and think it’s a waste of time if you try to reach for your goals/dreams. But in that small city for me, everybody’s mentality is the same except my uncle, who died June, 2004. His name is Javier and before he died he made a huge impact in me that determined the person who I want to become in life.

As you know, I was one of your favorite students but I didn’t get to actually tell you my story. When my two sisters and I lost our mother to breast cancer, I was only seven years old. It seemed like immediately after her death my loving and grateful father remarried. I struggled with reality for years and I felt lost. By the time my twenty-first birthday came I was pregnant. I had little knowledge on anything. Honestly, I missed out on my mother’s reliance on God including her guidance. There were periods of hardship until I finally cleared my mind. I started to listen to my step-mother’s military ways and I took action. I started my education with my dreams in mind and enrolled at Parkland College.

While students were watching videos in spanish class, a front desk helper came to fetch me. I felt a strong darkness running through my heart as I began to walk. The front desk advisor quickly said, “I am sorry for your loss”, then softly rubbed my shoulder as I weakly walked to my car, headed for home. A few years later my memories start to fade, and all I can recall are the happy parts of being with my father.

When I turned 11-years-old my whole childhood began to change my life went from being perfect to everything but perfect. One day I came home to hear the news my father, my best friend; my hero was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. Not knowing the struggle my family was about to take on I just began to cry. I had a million things running through my head what’s going to happen? Will everything be okay? Why him? What is going to happen? With all these things rushing through my head all I could do was cry not knowing this was least worse to come.

Most of the time, I am a vivid and active dreamer. I would have dreams very often some more realistic than others. In my dreams, I could feel everything and perceive everything around as if it where reality. Nightmares or bad dreams would be the worst because I’d feel trapped in my dream and actually feeling all the emotions, fear and tensions that arise without being able to wake up. From time to time, my dreams would make sense and actually mean something. Other times it would be non-sense or just my imagination. From time to time, I would have dreams that actually happen. The events that played out in my dream would occur in the chronology as they did in my dream. Somewhat oblivious to those dreams, I would put no effort into further understanding why these dreams occurred. One day, my dream was more than just a dream.

“You can do anything that you set your mind to!” This was a very common phrase that my parents would say to me when my siblings and I were younger.

Me: “If this were my dream, a church is a place of spirituality and emotional expression. A classroom is a place of learning and objective sharing of information. I went to school long ago when I was young and more optimistic the years have made me more cynical. I am rushed and unsure of what is going on in my life. I am late to class and no seems to care because I no longer in that phase of my life, I have moved on. I am now employed in Las Angeles and no longer go to school. The pressures in my life have changed from educational to occupational. I am now working, no longer in school, but I still feel like the frustration of not knowing where I am going in life. The dream represents the journey from youth and school to maturity and responsibility”.